This invention relates generally to a honing device, and more particularly, to a honing device for simultaneously honing a plurality of discrete cutting elements secured to a common mount.
Bowhunters and fishermen require sharp broadhead blades and sharp fishhooks for use in the field. Once used, either for practice or in actual hunting or fishing, the cutting edges of such broadheads or fishhooks become dulled and less effective. Bowhunters or fisherman, therefore, must keep a large supply of sharp replacement blades or fishhooks with them in the field, or they must have a convenient method for sharpening these blades or fishhooks even in the field.
The multi-blade broadheads used in bowhunting as well as the treble fishhooks used by fisherman in deep water fishing, are relatively expensive and heretofore have been difficult to sharpen. In addition to actual use of such blades or fishhooks in hunting or fishing, other factors such as rust, storage in the bow quiver, storage in cabinets or tackle boxes also dull the edges of such blades or fishhooks, requiring sharpening before and after each use.
Conventional blade sharpener devices which have been provided generally comprise a component for securely holding a blade with at least one surface of its cutting edge available for engagement with the sharpening tool. Such devices work on a single blade surface and the blade must be released, inverted and reinserted in order to sharpen the opposite surface of the cutting edge.
There are sharpening devices which guide or hold a sharpener tool at a selected angle within a frame or with a frame and a template. Some of such frames have multiple slots or grooves for removably holding an abrasive surface and for inserting a blade angularly disposed relative to the abrasive surface for sharpening the cutting edge. Multiple grooves are often provided for the proper angle required for the opposite cutting surfaces of the blade's cutting edge.
Typically, the sharpening devices described above are awkward to manage and will engage only one surface of each cutting edge individually, and the blade must be repositioned to sharpen the opposite surface of the cutting edge. This is a cumbersome procedure not especially conducive to use in the field particularly when sharpening a multi-blade broadhead or treble fishhooks having a plurality of cutting edges extending radially outward at equally spaced intervals relative to one another from a common central mount.
One of the major problems involved with many of the available devices is obtaining an accurate angle to engage the blade with the sharpening tool. Often parts of the sharpening device will interfere with the required stroking motion of the sharpening tool on a portion of the blade. In addition, the unique feature of broadhead blades having a tapered configuration, pose special problems in an attempt to engage the entire cutting edge. These problems do not appear to be addressed, much less solved, by the aforementioned devices.